With Apple’s Q3 2021 financial results presented yesterday, the company has given some clues about the iPhone 13 launch. Without stating it clearly, all of the comments and absences point to the same thing: IPhone 13 will launch in September. Let’s see what was said at the shareholders meeting yesterday on this subject.
IPhone 13 supply shortage in the quarter
The supply restrictions we saw in the June quarter will be more severe in the September quarter. At the time, when we spoke here three months ago, we said that we were facing supply constraints in the June quarter of between $ 3-4 billion, mostly on the iPad and Mac. […], but we expect that number to be higher in the September quarter.
Luca Maestri, Apple’s chief financial officer, made the statements to shareholders last night. He went on to say that, given all this, they expect “very strong double-digit growth for September”, with this consideration on scarcity. In a previous comment, he said the following:
We expect the supply restrictions in the September quarter to be more severe than those experienced in the June quarter. The restrictions will mainly affect the iPhone and iPad.
White and bottled. What usually happens in the September quarter that could affect iPhone supply? The presentation of a new model, in this case, the launch of the iPhone 13. Traditionally, when a new terminal is launched, deliveries are delayed by several weeks almost immediately.
Then, as time passes and initial demand stabilizes, Apple manages to dramatically improve delivery times. This is possible thanks to the fact that they can redirect production to demand more precisely when it has materialized in the form of orders.
High demand, shortage of old chips and transportation issues
Apple executives have clarified the supply issues the company is facing. The global chip shortage seizes the whole industry, although from Apple they are optimistic. According to their comments, the shortages and difficulties are due to three main causes.
The first is the strong demand for its products, where the iPhone has seen almost 50% growth in sales. It’s already adds tension to the supply chain of the company because “it is difficult to get all the components on the time schedule that we aspire to have”.
These shortages were caused by high demand, chip supply issues, and shipping bottlenecks.
The second is this difficulty in getting the processors on time, a problem that affects everyone. However, since Cupertino, they indicate that the shortage no longer affected older models and not so much to the latest generation equipment. And the third is an unusual increase in the cost of transportation for this time of year. Something that could be explained by what happened in March with Ever Given and its gigantic traffic jam in the Suez Canal.
In all cases, the Maestri and Cook executives they are optimists but they also take it with caution. They don’t want to make predictions about what might happen in the next few quarters in this regard.
